


Cold Case

by Alexa_Piper



Series: Ectober 2020 [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: A bit of dramatic irony, Ectober (Danny Phantom), Ectober Week 2020 (Danny Phantom), Gen, immortal danny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:13:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27221035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexa_Piper/pseuds/Alexa_Piper
Summary: "If it weren’t for the time difference, I’d ask if you were twins."
Series: Ectober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983812
Comments: 30
Kudos: 173





	Cold Case

Danny jumped as a thick manila folder held together with several elastic bands slammed onto his desk with a flurry of dust. He screwed up his nose and frowned at his colleague. “What’s this for?”  
She rolled her eyes, planting her hands on slim hips. “Weren’t you listening this morning? We’re all supposed to deal with one cold case from the past century. This one’s yours. Solve it, and you get a chance at a promotion.”  
He waved his hand, coughing as he tried to dispel the dust. “What, this is it? No box of evidence?”  
She jerked a thumb back over her shoulder. “Three boxes out the back. Just read the file first.”  
He sneezed, brushing away what looked like a mouse dropping. “How old’s this thing?”  
“Just get to it,” she snapped, “I have half a dozen more to hand out.”  
She walked away and Danny redirected his frown to the musty file. Hopefully there was a ghost who could point him in the right direction. It was why he’d chosen to try being a detective this time — far too many ghosts had asked him over the years to bring their killers to justice. It only seemed fair to try doing it through proper legal avenues first.  
The rubber bands disintegrated when he touched them, breaking into stiff chunks that stuck to the old cardboard. Danny sighed and gently opened it, blinking at the name and photograph on the first yellowing page.  
“Hey,” he said, catching the eye of the colleague who’d given him the file, “is this some kind of joke? This case is almost eighty years old!”  
She smirked. “You’ve solved older,” she reminded him. “Whatever it is you do, I don’t know how you do it, but you can use your magic on this one now and make the bosses happy.” She wiggled her fingers playfully at the word magic.  
Danny shook his head, pushing the file away. “I can’t solve this. Give me a different one.”  
Her smile grew as she walked back over to his desk. “Aww, but look at the poor kid. Disappeared when he was only seventeen after his parents died in mysterious circumstances. Had a single surviving sister who never said anything until cancer took her in her thirties. Don’t you think he deserves to be at peace?”  
Danny cringed as she turned his excuse for reopening specific cold cases back on him. “But—”  
“Besides,” she continued, pulling a loose photo out from its paperclip and holding it up to the light, “it’s already in the system. You’re dealing with this one. Boss’ orders.” She put the photo back on top of the massive stack of papers. “Funny. Don’t you think he looks a bit like you?”  
Danny forced a smile through gritted teeth. “Not really.”  
She raised an eyebrow. “You sure? If it weren’t for the time difference, I’d ask if you were twins.”  
He shrugged helplessly, trying not to appear strained as she snorted and headed back across the office.  
Danny glared down at the file. Becoming a detective had seemed like such a great idea for this decade’s new identity. As usual, the fates seemed to have it out for him, and Clockwork was probably crying with laughter back in his tower.  
Groaning, he pushed away from the desk and headed to the kitchenette. He needed the strongest coffee he could make before so much as touching that case file.  
Maybe by the time he’d finished a cup or two he’d have figured out how he was going to solve his own murder.


End file.
